Vol 3 Section 0660
Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam: “Your letter sustains your reputation for humor. I think, however, that it will be as well for us to enforce the Tom Sawyer contract as an actual fact. I am sure that Mr. Frohman will be quite willing to keep his part of the contract, therefore, if you will allow me to apply to him for the amount in question….” She reported a “most grateful letter” from the Mayos [MTP].
Rogers wrote to Sam.
I send you a clipping from the “World” relating to the much advertised history of the Standard Oil Company now being prepared for Mc Clure’s Magazine by Ida M. Tarbell. It would naturally be supposed that any person desiring to write a veritable history, would seek for information as near original sources as possible. Miss Tarbell has not applied to the Standard Oil Company, nor to anyone connected with it, for imformation on any subject. On the contrary, I have reason to believe, she is seeking all her information from those not disinterested enemies of the “Standard” who have for years invented and published falsehoods concerning it…. I do not know whether you can be of any service in the matter, but it would be a kindness to
Mr. Mc Clure as well as myself if you could suggest to him that some care should be taken to verify statements which may be made through his magazine…
After his signature, relating to the recent cruise of the Kanawha, Rogers wrote: “I got a stocking full of water.
I hope you fared better. Harry got his filled with oil. R” [MTHHR 478-9].
Note: from n2 of source: “In her autobiographical All in the Day’s Work (New York, 1939), pp. 211-212, Ida M. Tarbell reveals that Clemens had inquired of McClure ‘what kind of history’ his magazine proposed to publish and had suggested that Miss Tarbell talk to Rogers himself before proceeding. The first interview between the two took place at Rogers’s New York home, and a series of subsequent ‘frank’ discussions were held at 26 Broadway. ‘The History of the Standard Oil Company’ was serialized in McClure’s Magazine from October 1902 to October 1904; it was published as a book by McClure, Phillips & Company in 1904.” Ida Minerva Tarbell (1857-1944), teacher, author and “muckracker.” A. Hoffman points out that due to the interviews with H.H. Rogers, Tarbell’s “indictment of the company portrayed him as Standard Oil’s sole honest man” [442].
Bertrand Shadwell wrote to Sam, enclosing a clipping of his poem “A Song of Freedom” as published in the July 20, 1901 issue of The Public (Chicago) [MTP].
December
27 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Leave
7.27 arr. 7.55, Mr. Rockefeller will meet me. Read 2 stories Mrs. Clemens has an engagement” [NB 44 TS
19]. Note: Sam’s reading at Mr. Rockefeller’s monthly
Bible class was postponed until Jan. 28. See entry.
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Ah, the luck is with Harry & me!—a just reward of virtue. There’s no water in my Xmas presents. There is a profit of 27 per cent on my U.S. Steel—I don’t remember what I paid for it; do you? And my Amalgamated is nearly 70 points above what it cost me. These things make me thankful.
I am writing Jaccaci of McClure’s to come out & dine with us Monday next, or Tuesday or Thursday, & talk over a private matter—Monday preferablest [MTHHR 479]. Note: August F. Jaccaci (ca. 1870-1930),
art director for McClure’s Magazine. He was also a member of The Players.
Sarah Grand was to arrive in Riverdale on the 12:15 from Grand Central [Grand of Dec. 24].
December 28 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Write Wm. E. Dodge—or call at his house if I should go to town”
[NB 44 TS 19]. Note: William E. Dodge, Jr. was a Riverdale neighbor.
Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Sam:
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.